


Definitely Something

by Rod



Series: Parallel Lines [18]
Category: Veritas: The Quest
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-08
Updated: 2013-05-08
Packaged: 2017-12-10 20:30:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/789850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rod/pseuds/Rod
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With lives at stake, Nikko and Cal work fast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Definitely Something

Cal's fingers fly over the keyboard as Vincent and Dr Zond pack the probes back into the van. Thankfully integrating the geophysical data with their regular geographical database is a pretty trivial task, because right now he can't concentrate worth shit. Pausing, he turns to confront the reason for his distraction.

"Do you have to do that?" he asks Nikko.

Nikko looks down at him in what seems to be genuine surprise. "Do what?" he asks, then returns to peering over Cal's shoulder at the computer screen.

Cal sighs and resumes typing. He isn't fooled in the slightest; Nikko doesn't know enough about the programs that Cal, Maggie and Juliet have developed to have a clue what is going on, so he has to have some ulterior motive for bugging Cal. On the other hand it isn't like he can tell Nikko to stop being so damn sexy, or indeed so close that Cal can recognise him by his shampoo, because that would lead to awkward questions about how come Cal knows what Nikko's shampoo smells like in the first place. That is not a conversation he is going to have where Nikko's father can hear it.

"We need to talk," Nikko says softly, so softly that Cal almost doesn't hear him even though Nikko is whispering straight in his ear.

Cal freezes. His brain makes a few half-hearted attempts to think of reasons to talk that don't involve Nikko knowing all about his hopeless crush, fails and shuts up shop for the afternoon.

"Later," Nikko adds hurriedly.

Cal looks up at him again and sees mild panic in Nikko's eyes. Which is wrong, and judging by the way Nikko's expression changes the panic in his own eyes is equally unexpected. Weirder and weirder, Cal thinks.

He nods. He has after all promised himself that he will get Nikko to open up about whatever has got him brooding, and if he'd had a spare neuron that hadn't been obsessed with lust then he might have figured out that Nikko might be wanting to talk about that a little earlier and saved himself a huge amount of embarrassment.

"I hate to rush you, Cal," Dr Zond calls over, "but we are running against the clock here."

"Great," Cal mutters, turning back to the computer. "Now I have performance anxiety. Or something." He risks a glance at Nikko, who is openly smirking at him. "Definitely something."

Thirty seconds later he is calling out coordinates to Vincent and tossing him the hand-held as the two older men head into the field with shovels and picks. Not a personal best by any means, but it's good enough. Now it's just a matter of getting down to the level of the next piece of the Ring, and not destroying it in the process.

Buried treasure. Cal snorts at how close he's getting to his childhood dream of pirate gold, and how stupid that idea has always seemed to his adult self. Then again, when you're trying to hide something from a deep and devious organisation like Dorna, burying it in an otherwise unremarkable field is at least as safe as having someone guard it.

Nikko's standing next to him again, watching Vincent and his father dig, and Cal idly wonders just how he got out of the grunt work this time. Then of course he has to suppress the image of a half naked and very sweaty Nikko waist deep in a trench, and a shiver sweeps through him. Way to be cool, he thinks.

Later on, it occurs to him that he looks like a spy when he talks to Nikko without turning to look at him. In practice it's because Cal doesn't trust himself enough right at the moment not to do something stupid.

"So what did you want to talk about," he asks quietly.

"Not here," Nikko replies, also quietly and also not looking at Cal. "It's complicated. Personal. I don't want to freak you out in front of Dad."

"I am not going to freak out," Cal grinds out. He may not trust himself, but he'll be damned if he lets Nikko not trust him. A thought which gives him another shiver.

Nikko's laugh is humourless. "I freaked," he says emphatically. "OK, technically I was freaking about something else at the same time but trust me, you... what?" He does turn and stare at last, looking at the hand Cal is holding up to stop him.

Cal ignores him. He felt that shiver run up his spine again, and this time he's sure Nikko had nothing to do with it. Whatever it is, it feels like it's coming from the dig, and Cal will chew that over later but for now he needs to move.

"Something's wrong," Nikko says. "They look like they're drunk or something."

Cal is already back at the computer. He takes one look at the readings from Vincent's remote and swears. "Dr Zond! Vincent! Get out of there!"

"What's happening?" Nikko asks frantically.

"That magnetic anomaly we were pin-pointing? It got a lot stronger."

"And?"

Cal sighs. Juliet's supposed to have covered this in Nikko's physics classes. "A lot stronger. Strong enough to deflect electrical currents noticeably."

Nikko's eyes widen. "Like in the brain?" he asks.

Cal nods, absently glad that he didn't have to spell it out in too much detail. He watches as Vincent and Solomon stagger out of the small pit they've dug and lurch back towards them. They get about twenty feet before they fall and lie twitching.

"Dad!" Nikko yells.

Cal grabs him before he can get more than a step away. "It'll do exactly the same to you," he says. "Besides, the field is still getting stronger. We've got to find some way of shutting it down while we can still get near." It vaguely disturbs him that he didn't need to look at the instruments to know that, the shivers — which must be low-level random nerve firings — are telling him all he needs to know.

"Shut it down how? Have you got a magnetic field generator in your pocket or something?"

Cal wastes a moment watching Nikko remember the rest of the electromagnetism lesson, then the two of them turn and run for the van. Cal grabs the longest, heaviest steel hawser he can find and uncoils enough from both ends to reach the trench. "Attach this to the generator," he tells Nikko, handing him the ends. "Wait until I get as close as I can before firing it up."

Nikko watches as Cal pulls out his earring and starts dumping out his pockets. Cal can practically see the wheels turning in his head, and bites back a sarcastic remark. They don't have time for bitching just now.

"Eddy currents?" Nikko ventures.

Cal nods, pulling off his belt and ignoring Nikko's poorly suppressed smile. "Pat yourself on the back later, we're in a hurry here."

Nikko scowls but passes Cal a pair of heavy gloves and starts connecting their impromptu electromagnet to the generator that Vincent set up earlier. Cal turns and drags the cable towards the dig, trusting Nikko to connect it up the right way round. If it was less important he'd worry, but with Dr Zond's life on the line Nikko will get that right.

It feels like walking through treacle, Cal thinks. Treacle that's making his whole body tingle, and concentration starts becoming an issue. Cal forges on, vaguely surprised that he's still going as he passes the unconscious men. It's only when he realises belatedly that he's fallen to his knees that he yells back to Nikko to turn on the juice.

The looped hawser bucks in his hand as the current starts flowing through it, trying to flip over to align with the magnetic anomaly rather than fight against it. Cal grins; Nikko got it right. As the counter field establishes itself Cal finds it easier to move again, though that's a relative term. He staggers a few steps forward, just feet short of the trench. His head is pounding now, and with every small motion he feels movement around him, almost as if he could feel the shifting field patterns as something more refined than random nerve firings, and he really must look up some articles on homing pigeons' direction sense later, and that's the point that he realises that his coordination has given out again. He's fallen over just short of his goal. His limbs aren't cooperating any more, just thrashing about as he tries to push the coil those last few inches closer.

He hears Nikko swear behind him. As he thrashes around, Cal sees Nikko collapsed just short of his father and Vincent, and if Cal could form coherent sentences right now he'd be cussing Nikko out for not keeping back. Now they're all stuck, and Nikko's glaring at the cable as if sheer anger could push it into the trench.

When the cable does obligingly break the laws of physics and flop forward, Cal shoves the shock away from the small part of his brain currently able to think. The fields are close enough that the pressure has almost gone, but they aren't cancelling perfectly and the anomaly is still growing. Cal doesn't have time to think about how he knows that either, he just does, and he inelegantly rolls into trench to deal with it.

Then he's fighting the hawser again, shifting it and twisting it and pinning it down. He isn't thinking any more, just tweaking in reaction to the shifts he can feel around himself, until suddenly it stops. There is a moment of perfect balance that is an almost physical silence to Cal, then he feels the anomaly's field shutting down. For a moment he gets it together enough to worry that his own electromagnet is going to become a problem itself, then he realises that field has gone too. The cable has melted.

Nikko's standing at the edge of the trench, panting heavily but grinning like a loon. "You did it," he says.

Cal levers himself upright, hissing in pain at the burns he got from the sheer heat of the cable. He'll deal with that later, though, right now he has another anomaly to clear up. He looks from Nikko to the mess that used to be a coil. "That was what you wanted to talk about?" he asks, eyes hard.

That wipes the smile off Nikko's face. "No," he says, grabbing Cal's wrist so that they can both see his hand. "This is what I wanted to talk about."

The glove is completely gone across Cal's palm, and he isn't surprised to see that his hand is burnt and blistered. It's the unmistakable pink of new skin already showing through that's the shock.


End file.
